


Don't Mention the Tip-Toe Man

by quicksiluers



Category: Glass (2019), Unbreakable (2000)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Spoilers, cause I love david and joseph a lot, takes place before glass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 06:56:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17462753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksiluers/pseuds/quicksiluers
Summary: Joseph has been working with his father for year's, helping to keep the city streets of Philadelphia safe. Life hasn't been easy, but his father is the hero he always knew he would be.(Small spoilers for Glass)





	Don't Mention the Tip-Toe Man

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! It's been a bit since I've written something but I just needed to write something for these two. I love Unbreakable and David and Joseph's relationship is one of my favoirte things in it. Which made me so appy about their relationship in Glass! Only slight spoilers for that movie, I just wanted to put something out there and get a feel of writing these characters before I write more. 
> 
> If you read, hope you enjoy!

Joseph started working with his dad sometime in his teens. 

It was small things at first, buying time so his mother wouldn’t notice his father missing or late coming home from work. His father would leave him with a lingering look before going off or a simple nod of his head, which was their signal. Joseph felt bad for keeping his mother in the dark, but he knew how she would react. His father needed to be out there helping people, it was the code he had. How could he stand by and not allow him to do that?

It was Joseph’s idea to have his father mic’d up during his missions out, so that they could communicate and he could look up additional information that his father wouldn’t have access to. 

“And how would you explain that to you mother?” David pressed, looking over the small device in his hand. 

“I’ll have it all set up on my computer in my room, mom knows to knock before coming in and I can quickly hide everything on my desktop,” he explained, clicking away at the keyboard and demonstrating for his father, “See?”

David had given him a questioning looking, an eyebrow raised, “Should it concern me that you know how to hide things so easily?”

There was a thrill to working with his father. In his life, he would never imagine being his partner, helping him fight people who wronged others and bring some sort of justice that authorities couldn’t. He could see the change in his father. The air of sadness that seemed to have hung over him for years was no longer there. Like he had found a purpose that wasn’t there before. 

Things were good for a period of time. 

His mother got sick. Audrey was a fierce woman, steadfast in her beliefs and warm to anyone she would meet. She would tease David about his somber attitude, his uses of corny jokes, and if they could, they would just sit there together for hours. Talking about what some people may considered boring, but Joseph couldn’t help but smile when he saw it. For a good portion of his childhood, things weren’t like that. Their home was warm again. Audrey was the rock of the family. 

They did everything they could. The cancer was spreading too quickly, they hadn’t caught it in time. Up into her final moments, Audrey was strong. Her hands, which were too frail, had cradled Joseph’s face, tears in the corners of her eyes.

“I love you…so much,” her voice was a whisper, smile strained, “you’ve grown to be such a strong man Joseph…”

He had hiccuped, trying to fight back a sob, tears rolling down his face, “I love you so much mom.”

“I know...this may be asking too much, but Joseph...watch out for your father…,” she stroked his cheek, “you’ll all he’ll have left.”

Things were different when she passed. His father would stay out later and later for work, roaming the streets. Trying to find anything to take his mind off everything. It was easy to see how quickly it was wearing on him. His reaction time would be off, his mood more somber then Joseph had ever seen. At times, Joseph would be running the store by himself, keeping up with customer demand to the best of his ability. He tried to juggle everything he could, anything to help his dad, but it had become too much. 

“I just...I just need you to be here dad!” He snapped one night, the two of them in the storage area of the store, “I can’t keep everything going, the work is stacking up and,” he ran his fingers through his hair, biting his lip to keep his voice from cracking, “I just can’t…”

David was in front of him, his eyes green eyes foggy, “Joseph…”, he stopped, watching him for a moment. His hand, still as strong as Joseph remembered, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in, embracing him. He buried his face in his father’s chest, hugging him, and Joseph couldn’t remember how long they stayed together like that. 

They were a few years removed from that now. Joseph was sitting in the back room of the store, multiple monitors set up in front of him as he looked over the daily news reports. Nothing of interest was popping up, aside from maybe the weather indicating that it would be raining hard again sometime this week.

“It’s like it never ends…,” he mumbled, shaking his head and marking it down in his notebook. Rain days were usually the times where he would prefer his father didn’t go out on one of his “walks”. 

A chime caught his attention. Turning in his seat, he watched his father drop off his backpack. The poncho he wore may not be the best costume, but it was easily portable. 

“Nothing is really coming up on my radar today dad,” Joseph explained, leaning back in his chair a bit, “we are supposed to be getting more rain though.”

“More? Jesus..,” David yawned, scratching the back of his head as he walked toward his son, “You would think this city would be under water with the amount of rain we’ve gotten this year.”

David sat down in the chair next to him, pulling a small notebook out of his back pocket, “There hasn’t been too many people to deal with this week…,” he trailed off, crossing something off with his pen. 

“Well that’s good, let’s you stay undercover,” Joseph replied, typing away as the computer, “That way the cops can’t keep track of you...they were getting a bit too close for comfort for a bit there.”

“If the fire hydrant hadn’t blown up in my face…”

The young man grinned, patting his father on his knee, “I know dad, you don’t have to explain it to me again...or are you forgetting in your old age?”

David’s eyes squinted, “Funny Joseph, like I haven’t heard that one from you before.” 

Joseph laughed, scanning through the messaging boards that he monitored on a daily basis. It was rare, but there were times that his father was caught on camera while out. They were never close enough to see his face, his father tended to stay in the shadows, but it was something to keep an eye on. 

A thread caught Joseph’s attention and he clicked on it. Scrolling down, there was a link to a news story from one of the local stations. He read over the article quickly, making sure no valuable information was within it, before he stopped on a phrase. He read it again, just to be sure he was seeing it right, before he broke out into a laugh. 

David looked up from his book, his eyebrows drawn together, “What?”

“You’ve got,” he stopped, laughing slightly, “Someone’s giving you a new name…”

Placing his book down, David rolled his chair closer to his son and scanned the screen. Joseph bit his lip, trying to fight off the grin on his face. 

“You’ve…,” David leaned in closer, “Of all the name’s, they go with that?”

“I mean, you are pretty sneaky dad,” Joseph playfully counter, leaning back in his chair, “or should I say ‘tip-toe man’?”

The older man glared at him, holding up a finger, “Don’t. Don’t even try to make this...awful name a thing.”

“I don’t know why you don’t like it, I mean it’s got a great ring to it,” he teased, rolling away when his father tried to shove him, “hey now, that’s not fair!”

Standing up, his father gave one more glare at the computer, mumbling something underneath his breath, before messing with his hair affectionately, “I’m going to get the store open and we can forget all about this...tip-toe man nonsense, you hear me?”

Standing up, Joseph followed his father down the hall, the grin still on his face, “Whatever you say tip-toe man.”

“Joseph I swear…”

Things hadn’t been easy. But this, being with his father, helping him in anyway he could, was all Joseph wanted in the world. 


End file.
